Better information for a better response: The basics of humanitarian transparency

Our report unpacks the humanitarian transparency landscape, demonstrating the vital role that transparency can and should play in enabling countries and communities to better prepare for and respond to crises.

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The World Humanitarian Summit provides an unprecedented opportunity to generate political momentum on the issue of transparency. We have witnessed strong calls, including from the United Nations Secretary-General, for global improvements in the quality, availability and use of data on financing for crisis prevention and response. We have also seen a growing number of citizen- and NGO-led initiatives that seek to track funding for national and local crises to enable a more effective and accountable response.

Our report provides a comprehensive overview of the current transparency landscape for humanitarian finance, and focuses in on three key elements of transparency, the ‘3Ts’:

Traceability following funds through the transaction chain from donor to crisis-affected people.

Totality a complete picture of all resource flows to crisis situations, including and beyond international humanitarian assistance.

Timeliness real-time data on the resources available to provide an accurate picture to those operating in fast-moving humanitarian settings.

The study looks at evidence of the core challenges and barriers to transparency across these key areas, and highlights solutions that have the potential to significantly improve responses to crises.

Case studies on such crises as the Ebola virus disease and Nepal earthquake are used to shine a spotlight on the key issues, demonstrating the vital role that transparency plays in improving the effectiveness of humanitarian action.